TREES-tree root examination, evaluation and standardization

ABSTRACT

This invention will be an apparatus, system and use of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) as a noninvasive and non-destructive means to detect and examine tree roots, below grade of the soil surface. This invention will provide a means and methodology for objective evaluation of tree root defects based upon standards for urban trees at all levels of the Nursery Tree Industry. The output from software algorithms will provide guidance for remediation of defects when appropriate, inventory and management data for proactive maintenance at all levels of the supply chain. This apparatus, system and methodology will be a new and useful process at all levels of the supply chain for nursery tree stock.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to and benefit of U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application No. 61/455,352 filed on Oct. 19, 2010.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The tree root examination, evaluation and standardization system is aground penetrating radar (GPR) apparatus, system and methodology of usefor inspection and objective evaluation of tree root structure belowground with guidance to remediate defective roots.

BACKGROUND

Each year, millions of trees are planted in our urban landscape; alongcity streets, in parks and in our back yards. Our hope is that they willgrow, improve the value of our property with their beauty, help to coolhardscapes with the shade of their full canopies, provide habitat, blockcold and wind and filter Green House Gases from the atmosphere in a waythat only trees can do. Sadly, most of the trees we plant in ourcommunities may never reach their full potential. These smaller andshorter-lived trees have more difficulty coping with urban soils,succumb to more stress related disease and invasive pest problems.Smaller and shorter-lived trees offer fewer aesthetic and environmentalbenefits at an untold cost to our planet and us.

Trees grown in mass production for the purpose of resale are generallygrown in a field or in a container of some type. There is greatpotential for nursery stock trees to develop defective roots, yetremediation of the defects is seldom done because there is littlevisibility of the root system inside the root ball or below ground whenplanted in the landscape.

While growing in the nursery location, trees are often planted too deepin the ground or in some type of container; thus the tree stem is belowgrade of the soil surface. This practice helps to keep the trees fromfalling over with little or no staking needed. The field grown trees areoften harvested by using a spade machine that cuts a root ball from thesoil and it is then placed into a ‘bag & burlap’ wrap and/or a containerof some type. Wire baskets are often used for larger root balls to helpin storage of and/or transporting the trees.

When planted in the landscape, healthy tree root systems grow shallow(mostly within 18 to 20 inches below grade) with a spreading habit thatextends a great distance from the stem of the tree. It is important toretain a sufficient amount of good quality roots for them to grow intohealthy trees with a stable structure to promote the long-term benefitsthat only trees can provide.

With my invention, tree root examination, evaluation and standardizationsystem, an apparatus using ground penetrating radar (GPR) technologyapplied to a new method of use will offer meaningful and usefulinformation to evaluate and remediate root defects.

The following four examples represent some of the problems with treeroots that occur out of sight, below grade of the soil surface, howeverthese examples are without limitation. The trees' long-term health,sustainability, value, and opportunity to provide aesthetic and mostimportantly, ecologic benefits are greatly diminished; unless theproblems are detected and corrected. (For these examples the consumer iscomprised of, but not limited to, wholesale suppliers, retail suppliers,developers, landscapers, arborists, municipalities, foresters,homeowners, ecosystems, the environment.)

Problem 1 currently occurs during harvest of field grown trees using atree spade. When a nursery tree is planted too deep, the tree spade cancut as much as 80% to 90% of the critical roots off the tree at the timeof harvest. The tree is then placed in a wire basket with bag & burlapor a container of some type for storage and/or transportation.

The consumer is unable to objectively evaluate the complexity of theroot structure in soil to determine root defects and/or judge thecurrent and long-term value of the investment.

Problem 2 currently occurs when harvested trees (as noted in Problem 1)remain in wire basket with bag & burlap or a container of some type forexcessive periods of time. In this case, the tree roots could begin togrow in a circular fashion in the confined space. Also, a secondary rootsystem can begin to grow from the stem below grade of the soil levelalso in a circling pattern. The longer the tree remains in a container,the more likely the root structure will be compromised.

The consumer is unable to objectively evaluate the complexity of theroot structure in soil to determine root defects and/or judge thecurrent and long-term value of the investment.

Problem 3 currently occurs when a tree has been grown in a container.The process generally requires transplanting the tree multiple times asit outgrows each smaller container. (For example, from a 2″ container,to 4″, to 6″ to 10″ and so on.) The trees roots tend to grow in acircular pattern with containerized plants (as noted in Problem 2) andthis becomes very serious to the tree with stem circling roots in anumber of layers through the container's root ball. “Stem girdlingroots” is a root collar disorder where the roots grow tightly around thetree stem. The conflict eventually results in extreme compression of thewoody and nonwoody tissue of the stem, interfering with the hydraulicprocess to transport water and food to the crown from the roots andcarbohydrates from the crown to be stored in the roots. If the disorderof stem girdling roots goes uncorrected, it could cause decline ofhealth, loss of productivity and early death of the tree.

The consumer is unable to objectively evaluate the complexity of theroot structure in soil to determine root defects and/or judge thecurrent and long-term value of the investment.

Problem 4 currently occurs when a tree has been planted in the urbanlandscape and is experiencing distress due to the critical rootstructure that has been compromised. This could be due to many thingsincluding but not limited to: failure to remove wire basket, bag &burlap fabric, planting too deep, condition of stem girdling roots orany number of conditions resulting in a root collar disorder.

The planted trees, present a challenge to the consumer in an attempt toperform best maintenance practices in caring for the trees in order tomaximize the tree benefits.

The Morton Arboreturn-Urban Tree Roots Systemshttp://www.mortonarb.org/urban-tree-root-systems.html:

-   -   “It is estimated that over 80% of all landscape problems        originate below ground, but even basic knowledge about urban        soils and root management is lacking.”

The consumer is unable to objectively evaluate the complexity of theroot structure in soil to determine root defects and/or judge thecurrent and long-term value of the investment.

Often, by the time the tree has signs of decline due to root disorder,it has been too severely compromised to warrant the effort and expenserequired to correct the problem. This is a list, but without limitation,of some economic and environmental impacts when the trees we plant dielong before their time: cost to replace trees, repair property damagedby tree failure, liability for property damage and person injury,property value, impact on the environment for opportunity loss of GreenHouse Gases avoidance and sequestration, cooling from shade, ecosystemwatershed filtration, noise reduction and the ability to supportwildlife habitat will be at risk with less healthy, less sustainabletrees in the urban landscape.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention is a ground penetrating radar (GPR) apparatus, system andmethodology of use for inspection and objective evaluation of tree rootstructure below ground with guidance to remediate defective roots.

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a non-invasive and non-destructivetechnological means to detect objects, such as tree roots, below gradeof the soil surface. Application of this invention will be focused on,for example but without limitation, the critical root structure zone ofthe nursery stock trees for resale as well as trees planted in the urbanlandscape. The apparatus will be used to scan the roots from the topdown for trees planted in the landscape or in any direction for a treegrowing in a container of any type. Based on industry standards and bestmaintenance practices, software will be developed using algorithms tointerpret the GPR data, evaluate, quantify and document key elements ofthe objective evidence and offer guidance to remediate the problems.

Information will be available from the earliest stages of growing treesfor resale through the sale to the ultimate consumer and beyond as anongoing inventory and maintenance tool. With this invention, there willbe visibility to the problems noted above and recommendations toremediate the problems. This will offer answers and, according tostandards, to these questions but is not limited to this scope:

Problem #1—were sufficient roots harvested with the field grown tree?

Problem #2—is there evidence of defective roots in the root ball of thefield grown tree that was harvested some time ago?

Problem #3—is there evidence of defective roots in the root ball of thecontainer-grown tree?

Problem #4—what is the condition of the tree roots after planting in thelandscape?

This invention will do for the nursery tree industry what food labelshave done for the food industry by offering visibility to an otherwiseinvisible set of critical variables. Outcome of the objective evidencedata, based on industry standards will greatly improve the consumers'tool-kit for ongoing ‘best maintenance practices’ by solving a problemat the “root of it!”

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates the application of a ground penetrating radar treeroot apparatus according to an exemplary method of the invention appliedto tree roots planted in soil, in the landscape, or soil in a container.

FIG. 2 diagrammatically illustrates an exemplification of the groundpenetrating radar tree root apparatus according to one embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplification of the method of applying theground penetrating radar tree root apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1 andthe method illustrated in FIG. 2 according to one embodiment of theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect, referring to FIG. 1, this invention, will be a groundpenetrating radar (GPR) tree root apparatus 10 to detect, quantify andclassify root complexities 60 of trees. This invention will also be amethod to objectively evaluate the condition of tree roots 60 throughanalysis based upon industry standards.

This invention is relevant, but not limited to the tree nursery industryand urban forestry industry, also referred to as the green industry.Application of this invention will be relevant throughout all aspects ofthe tree nursery industry supply chain cycle. (for example: wholesaleand retail supplier, homeowners, developers, landscapers, arborists,municipalities, foresters, ecosystems, environment)

With continued reference to FIG. 1, in one embodiment, the apparatus 10,according to the invention, will be used for examination or inspectionof tree root 60 complexity prior to and/or following harvest of fieldgrown stock at the suppliers' site and for trees grown and/ortransported in containers of any kind.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 10, according to the invention, willprovide objective evidence upon examination of the roots 60 below gradeof the soil 50. Output of the apparatus 10 will provide, but is notlimited to data such as: detection of defined root defects; location ofroot defects; depth of tree stem 61 below grade of the soil;recommendations to remediate identified defects; GPS location data;bar-coded label of data output; inventory management data; individualtree history tracker.

The method for data attributes will be comprised of but not limited to,requirements considered to be standard or best practices for the urbantree industry. Among the attributes will be to derive or detect: depthof the tree stem below grade of the soil level; depth of tree rootcollar; evidence of root defect (stem circling or girdling roots, divingor ascending roots, etc.); volume of root mass to container; GPSlocation calculation; detection of wire basket planted with tree;ability to provide critical data evaluation on bar-coded label or othersuch tree data sheet; storage of tree type; option to capture visibleaspects of tree from ground up; diameter at breast height (DBH); datestamp.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the apparatus 10 for detecting a tree'sroots 60 below grade of the soil 50 will include ground penetratingradar frequency using an antenna 12 of from 200 Mhz to 2600 Mhz, but notlimited by that range. Soil 50 condition will be one of the variablerequirements to assure consistency in objective evidence output. Theradar frequency data 18 will be transmitted to a computer storage device24 with analytical software programs 16 to interpret according tostandards.

With continued reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, in one embodiment, theapparatus 10, according to the invention, will detect a tree's roots 60below grade of the soil 50 by use of ground penetrating radar frequencyusing an antenna 12 of from 200 Mhz to 2600 Mhz, but not limited by thatrange. Soil 50 condition will be one of the variable requirements toassure consistency in objective evidence output. The radar frequencydata 18 will be transmitted to a computer device 24 with analyticalsoftware programs 16 to interpret according to standards. The output ofthe data will provide users with useful information to remediatedefective roots when identified.

The apparatus 10 will include, but is not limited to, a radar antenna12, computer storage device 24, software algorithm 16 to analyzegathered data. The devices will be designed to accommodate currenttechnology including, but not limited to, wireless devices, barcodingscan and readers, OPS location technology and any other ‘smart’ datadevices 17.

The apparatus 10 for detecting the tree's roots 60 below grade of thesoil 50 will be designed to accommodate technology advancements ongoing.For example, the apparatus 10 could be a scanning tool 14 attached to acomputer storage device 24 by use of a cable 25 or it could be a selfcontained, wireless hand held device without a cable or it could beconfigured as an application to be used with a “smart phone” type ofdevice 17 and not limited to today's technology for portability, ease ofuse and functionality and optional power sources.

This invention will do for the nursery tree industry what food labelshave done for the food industry by offering visibility to an otherwiseinvisible set of critical variables. Outcome of the objective evidencedata based on industry standards will greatly improve the consumers'tool-kit for ongoing ‘best maintenance practices’ by solving a problemat the “root of it!”

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for detecting defects of treeroots below grade of the soil, comprising: providing an apparatuscomprising an antenna and adapted to generate radar frequency datarepresenting the configuration of said tree roots below grade of thesoil; applying said apparatus above soil grade in the region of saidtree roots; generating said radar frequency data; providing a computerstorage device for storing said radar frequency data; providing analgorithm configured to correlate said generated radar frequency datawith defects below grade in said tree roots; processing said radarfrequency data by said computer storage device and said algorithmwhereby said generated radar frequency data is correlated with defectsbelow grade in said tree roots.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein saidantenna comprises a frequency range of 200 mHz to 2600 mHz.
 3. Themethod of claim 1 wherein said tree root defects are selected from thegroup consisting of stem circling roots, stem girdling roots, divingroots, and ascending roots.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein said radarfrequency data comprises data selected from the group consisting of thedepth of the tree stem below soil, the depth of the tree root collar,the volume of root mass, and the detection of a wire basket.
 5. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising, wirelessly transmitting said radarfrequency data to said computer storage device.
 6. The method of claim 1wherein applying said radar device above soil grade in the region ofsaid tree roots comprises scanning said tree roots from the top down. 7.The method of claim 1 wherein applying said radar device above said soilgrade in the region of said tree roots comprises scanning said treeroots from any direction.
 8. A method for assessing the health of atree, comprising: providing a radar system capable of transmitting radarwaves below soil grade and receiving return reflections of thetransmitted radar waves; transmitting radar waves from the radar systemtowards the roots of a tree below soil grade; receiving returnreflections of the transmitted radar waves; storing in a memory datarepresenting the received reflections of the transmitted radar waves;and processing the stored data representing the received reflections ofthe transmitted radio waves with at least one algorithm that correlatesthe stored data with selected identifiable characteristics of treeroots.
 9. The method of claim 8 wherein tree roots below grade of soilcomprises tree roots in a container.
 10. The method of claim 8 whereinidentifiable tree roots are selected from the group consisting of stemcircling roots, stem girdling roots, diving roots, and ascending roots.